We had my father's memorial service today and the pastor related my dad's great qualities to the miracle of plastic. As a plastic pollution researcher, I find this a useful time for introspection on my research in connection with my father. A thread (1/n).

My dad lived in a nursing home for the past 8 years. He used countless sterilized plastic products every day to keep him healthy. Many of these products do not have alternatives that are better for his health than the plastic product. I am thankful for these plastic products(2/n)

However, his food court used disposable plastic and my dad actively tried to start up a recycling program to offset their impact that never worked because of the broken waste management program in his city. I am not thankful for these plastics (3/n).

Moreover, I worry every day about the growing evidence for harm from plastic additives, many of which are undisclosed, proprietary, and in everything he interacted with on a daily basis in his small confined room. (4/n)

All three of these examples have huge gaping data gaps and a lack of open access scientific information to address them and I wonder how my perception of my dad's relationship with plastic will change over the course of my research. (5/5)

Extra: Shout out to my dad for encouraging my pursuit of science and always patiently trying his best to understand and relate to the esoteric components of what I study. He will continue to be a huge gust of wind in my sails.